Redeem The Bear (14 page)

The smile dipped from his face as his gaze met hers, only to return at the corners. “It’s just right. Come here.” He dropped his duffle bag by the door and gripped her waist, his fingers finding their way under the fabric of her shirt.

Slow trails of warmth followed his fingertips and she dropped her eyes to his sensual mouth. She wanted to taste the smile that still lingered there.
Rising on her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his, and he backed her slowly to the bed.

“Did you touch yourself when we were apart?” he asked against her lips.

She should be embarrassed, really she should, but she was comfortable with him. He didn’t play games, she knew that now. He was curious. No agenda, no gathering ammunition to use against her later, this was just how he communicated, stripping conversation to its barest elements and eliminating meaningless words until he asked for only what he wanted to know.

“Yes.” The back of her knees hit the bed and she folded onto it.

As she scooted backward, he began to stalk her, his burning eyes never leaving hers.

“And did you think of me?” he asked, lower and huskier now.

His dominance was eking out of him, but she fought the urge to drop her gaze. He should see the truth in her words. “I’ve always thought about you.”

“Good,” he rumbled as he tugged her ankle gently to stop her backward motion. Settling between her hips, he lowered himself onto her and kissed her ear, her neck, the tip of her collar bone. “I’ve thought about this moment a lot. I thought I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from coming into you like a rutting beast, I wanted you so badly.” Her shirt bunched helplessly in his strong hands
, and he pulled it over her head and tossed it to the floor. Eyes smoldering, he raked a hungry gaze down her chest and to the waist of her jeans. “But that night in the tent was the first time I took it slow with anyone, and I want that again.”

Corin rocked her hips against the length of his erection. “And what if I don’t want it slow?”

He growled and met her hips, driving a long, hard stroke against her jeans as he growled deep in his chest. Gripping her hair and arching her head back, he whispered into her ear, “Don’t tempt me to lose myself, woman. You’re still new at this and need a gentle touch until you’re stretched to take me easier.”

Holy sh
it, if he kept talking like this, she was going to detonate. The button of her jeans snapped and the sound of the zipper pulling slowly filled the room. Panting, she tried to pull his shirt over his head.

In a rush, h
e balked and grabbed her hand. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. His dark gaze held silent warning.

“Okay,” she breathed, stung that he was still posturing in the safety of her home. She wasn’t a dominant, nor would the thought ever occur to attack him if she realized how hurt he really was. His lack of trust was a bitter taste in her mouth.
She could almost feel another wall slamming down between them as he hovered over her, studying her face.

Quietly
, he said, “This can wait.” Then he slid off the bed, and strode for the door.

He was leaving. After a few blinding moments of happiness
together, he was running again.

Anger burned through her veins, igniting her bold tongue. “
Why are you so afraid of me?”

“I’m not afraid of anything.” His voice sounded strange. Defeated, maybe, but his tone held only honest notes. He really wasn’t afraid of anything. Shouldering his duffle bag, he disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

The tap to the shower sounded, and she stood, staring at the door with a frown so deep it hurt her face.

What was she supposed to do? Give him space to pull away from her
even further? No. Whatever he was thinking, whatever darkness he had holed up in him would eat at him from the inside out. If she didn’t knock his demons loose, who would?

“Fuck.” His muttered oath drifted t
hrough the closed door. Pain, anger and something more tainted the word and made the tiny hairs on her ears lift in discomfort.

The entire house was beginning to smell like ozone. Like the power that came after a big storm and every step she took toward the bathroom made her stomach tingle
with disquiet.

Whatever was happening in there, he wanted hidden, but he was hers. Didn’t he understand that? Whatever dark secrets he harbored were safe with her.
She was strong enough to share the burden.

The knob was cold under her hand, unnaturally so, but she twisted it anyway
and pushed the door open. Wads of bandages filled the trashcan, fragrant with blood in different stages of drying. Her bear came to the surface, intrigued by the scent and worried about her mate.

Her mate?

Brooks stood in the shower, hands on the wall, staring at her through the glass door as steaming water rained down onto his shoulders. The stream near his feet ran burgundy, and his eyes churned an inhuman mercury color.

Dropping her gaze, she slipped out of her jeans and folded them neatly onto the sink. Her bra and panties were next, and, holding her breath in hopes that his bear wouldn’t shred her, she opened the shower door and slipped in behind him. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested them gently against his taut abdomen. It seemed to be the only place he wasn’t injured.

His body had been cut and sliced, and scars in every shade of age and healing crisscrossed his skin. He had obviously been fighting for his life, for her life, and for the lives of Bear Valley at the cost of his flesh.

Pressing her cheek against his back, the raining water hid her tears. “I’m scarred too,” she whispered. It hadn’t bothered her much until now, when she realized Brooks would never see her unmarred. “Will you show me?”

“Why?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

“Because you sharing everything with me will only make me love you more.”

His hand slid up her arm and held her hand in place against his stomach, and a shuddering sigh escaped him. His voice sounded strangled when he said, “Why do you keep saying that. How can you love someone like me? I’ve killed people, Corin. Ten years of killing just like every other Long Claw.”

Turning her face, she rested her forehead against the tensed muscles of his back and squeezed her eyes tightly closed. “You didn’t know any other way.
The Long Claws molded you into the enforcer they needed. What’s important to me is how you live your life from here on. You won’t scare me off, Brooks. So stop trying.”

Straightening, he turned and lifted his chin as she
studied his shredded chest. His eyes were expressionless, emotionless—as empty as the first time she’d seen him. She hated that he could turn it off so easily.

The water had washed away the old, dry blood, and the extent of his injuries made her shake her head back and forth in denial that he could sustain such abuse and still be upright. It was a testament to how strong he really was that he’d survived the Long Claws at all.

And his eyes, so cold as he watched her…she wanted to embrace him until he softened under her touch once again.

Turning
to give him her back, she looked over her shoulder and said, “Now, we match.”

He ran a light fingertip over the clawed scars that ran down her spine and sides. She only looked at them when she was putting on the m
edicines Anya had made for her.

“I’m going to take care of you,” she promised. “You don’t have to hide from me, Brooks Butler. The fates have given us another chance, and I’m not wasting the time
they gave us chasing you. Stop running from me.” She turned and glared at him through her damp eyelashes.

The strong cords of his throat moved as he swallowed. “What do you want from me?”

“Everything.”

His chin lowered and tilted as he stalked her. “Done,” he said, just before his mouth came down on hers.

Brooks dipped his tongue deeper and deeper against hers, and his jutting erection pressed against her belly. If she was hurting him, he showed no signs of it as he spun her and pressed her back against the cold tiled wall.

All of the gentleness had melted away from him and she was glad. She didn’t want him forcing himself to be
soft. Not this time. She wanted him as he was now. Not as the dim memory she harbored of Daniel, but as Brooks, dominant alpha and mature, ravenous man.

“Please,” she begged, biting his bottom lip as a snarl ripped out of him.

His fingers gripped her hair and arched her neck. He trailed biting kisses down her sensitive flesh and shoved his knee in between hers, widening her stance.

Shower water splashed against her cheek and she closed her eyes to better lose herself to Brooks’ affection. Now he was rutting,
insatiable and rough, and she found it incredibly alluring. She had the power to make one of the strongest bear shifters in the world lose control.

He slid a hand between her legs and pressed a finger inside of her, as if testing that she was ready to take him. Pushing his hand away, she growled, “No. I want you. All of you, Brooks. Now.”

His breath came in short pants as he reared back and thrust into her. She cried out as he stretched her, and pleasure began to build on the second plunging stroke. Propping her arms on his shoulders, she gripped his hair as he set a punishing pace, powerful hips flexing with every thrust. She met him, arching into him over and over. His kisses left her lips swollen and throbbing, but still she wanted more.

She was so close and he lifted the back of o
ne of her knees, his muscles straining as he rammed into her even deeper. This was it. “Brooks,” she panted. His name on her lips seemed to send him over the edge with her.

“Aah,” he yelled as
he bucked against her hard one last time.

Throbbing heat shot into her as she exploded around him.
Floating and falling all at once, she closed her eyes against the dizzying ecstasy. She wanted him inside her forever, connected just like this. Here she could see into his soul. He shared himself with her when they were bound like this.

“
Corin.”

“Mmm?”

“Corin, have I hurt you?”

Was she sore? Hell yes. The man was huge, but hurt her? No. It was the only way he knew to show her the affection he was incapable of doing when they were just talking. Such intimacy with the man she adored could never hurt.
Inhaling deeply against his throat, she smiled and shook her head.

His shoulders relaxed and he slumped forward with a relieved sounding chuckle. She lived for that sound on his lips and she smiled wider as she nuzzled his neck.

“You said my name,” he mused.

“I won’t call you Daniel anymore
, and I won’t compare the man you are now with my childhood memories of you.” She sighed happily against his skin. “I love
you
, Brooks—the man you are today, not the boy who you used to be.”

He eased back and the chill
had dimmed from his gaze. In its place was a look of pride and awe.

“
Corin,” he said, searching her face.

She froze under the intensity of his gaze.
“Yes?”

“I love you, too.”

Corin’s cheeks heated with a creeping shyness as Brooks cast her another glance. He couldn’t seem to stop looking at her. She understood. She had been drinking him in as much as she could too.

With a devastating smile, he leaned forward and kissed her, then pulled her knuckles to his lips. The walls between them had been demolished since he’d said the words she was af
raid he would never be able to.

He had slid out of her in the shower, and the warmth of his pleasure had streamed down the inside
of her legs. He had guided her gently under the warm jets of water, and cleaned her as he had in the tent. Wrapping her in a towel, he’d carried her to the bed and laid beside her, then talked for hours about the years they had missed together. He was still hesitant to tell her everything, she could tell, but someday he would trust her as completely as she did him. She could be patient and wait for that bond.

He’d made love to her again, slow
ly and with such reverence, she had wanted to cry afterward. This was it—the reason she hadn’t chosen another man in their ten years apart. She was meant to be here, with him, as they healed each other.

“When do you go back?” The question had been tugging at her heart, but afraid to ruin the magic of the day, she had swallowed it down time and time again. Now they were headed to dinner at Riker’s house, hiking slowly up the trail that would lead them back to civilization
. Time alone with him was running out.

“Tomorrow,” he answered, looking straight ahead.

One more day with him didn’t seem nearly enough. “When will I see you again?”

His face looked pained and he shook his head, as if to clear it. “I don’t know. I can’t leave my people, not when the rules have changed so much for them. The Long Claws need guidance if they are going to be redeemed.”